Who Are the Big Players in China’s Private Sector?

Date：2014/8/10 16:20:07 view：151

China Inc. boasts some of the biggest corporate names in the world today:
China Mobile Ltd., PetroChina, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd,
just to name a few. But while the commanding heights of the world’s
second-largest economy are still firmly in the hands of China’s state-owned
enterprises, who are the overachievers in the private sector?

Two recent
surveys try to answer that question. On Wednesday the China Europe International
Business School released its eighth annual list of China’s top 100 private
listed companies, after surveying the 2010 operating revenue of 1502 firms
listed in Hong Kong, the U.S. and mainland China. And in late August the
All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce issued its 2011 edition of China’s
top 500 private enterprises, also ranked by operating revenue (pdf in
Chinese).

The definitive word on who is the greatest of them all probably
goes to the ACFIC, a quasi-government industry group. With the private sector’s
great and good – many of whom are closely held – among its members, it can get
the inside word on how much private firms are actually making. Still, some firms
are notably absent from the list such as banks and financial institutions.

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd., which tops the CEIBS survey,
doesn’t make an appearance on the ACFIC list. Instead ACFIC ranks
telecommunications-equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. as top dog, although
its private status has been questioned by governments in the Westwary of its
seemingly close relationship with Beijing. Steelmaker Jiangsu Shagang Co. Ltd.
comes in at number two on the ACFIC list, and electronics and home appliance
retailer Suning Corp. comes in third.

CEIBS ranks Suning’s listed unit,
Suning Appliance Co. Ltd, second.The CEIBS survey is limited in that it only
looks at listed firms, but its value comes in comparisons it makes with listed
state-owned firms. According to CEIBS, China has 8.4 million private enterprises
accounting for 74% of the country’s total number of firms. But if the earnings
of publicly traded firms are anything to go by, state-owned firms still dwarf
the private sector in size with the average listed private company generating
only about 25% the total net profit of an average listed state-owned firm.
However, private firms saw faster revenue growth as a group — 21.46% against
18.88% for state owned firms.

The thing that jumps out from both lists is
the number of names from the consumer and retail sectors, areas in which state
firms play less of a role. Home appliance makers Qingdao Haier Co. and Gd Midea
Holding Co., and dairy producer China Mengniu Dairy Co. made the top 20 of the
CEIBS list, and car company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., food processor
Yurun Group and beverage maker Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. were in the ACFIC’s top
20.

Few are household names outside of China yet. But as a primer on the
Chinese brands that could one day be advertising on television screens and
magazine in Europe and the U.S., the lists offer an interesting snapshot.–
Dinny McMahon